The Greatest Deed
by LadyLikable
Summary: One Shot. HBPcompliant. Harry realises there is only one thing to do to put an end to the war. A selfless act on his part is needed.


_**The Greatest Deed**_

All four second year History of Magic classes had gathered on the grass outside the castle. The twelve year olds stood with their backs to the Whomping Willow, which had been there for just short of ever, and faced the lake where the Giant Squid was playing happily in the waves. Just to their right the magnificent castle bathed in the sunshine. Behind them the willow shifted slightly, seemingly on his guard, aware of the twelve year olds' presence. He had never been the same around the second year students since a long time ago when two of them had crashed a flying car into his crown…

"Silence!" A stern voice suddenly yelled making the children quiet down quickly. They all looked up at the tall figure that stood in front of them. It was a woman, a young woman called Professor Sterling that taught History of Magic at Hogwarts School. She stood just in front of the big crater that every person knew came from the Final Battle of the Lord Voldemort Wars. The crater was approximately twenty feet deep and just as wide, if not wider. It was enclosed by a fence and in each upright lath dozens of names were engraved, a tribute to the victims of the Wars.

"You have all studied the First and the Second Rise of the Dark Lord Voldemort," Sterling began, all the while gazing intently on her students as if to see if anyone who had slacked off on their studies would twitch under her gaze.

"Today we will cover the Final Battle, and in your next class we will cover the aftermath and recovery." She stepped to the side to give everyone had a perfect view of the crater and gestured at it.

"This is where it all ended." She explained. "But we will start at the beginning. You all remember that I told you about the Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore's Army leaving their hideout and apparating, an old form of turning, to Hogsmeade. From there they had to walk up to the Hogwarts castle since there were wards, similar to those we have now, around the school that prevented apparating, just as ours prevent turning." Sterling quieted for a moment as she withdrew her wand. She gazed solemnly at her class. "Move back a few feet please, I am now going to show you what happened. Don't be afraid, nothing that you will see can hurt you." The class watched wide eyed as their professor spun a golden web over the crater. The web shone clearly, despite the bright sunshine, and suddenly it flashed even brighter than the sun, leaving the audience blinded for a second or two. When they could see again they jumped slightly in surprise for in front of them was an amazing sight. They saw the profile of a man holding a pearly white staff in his hand and gazing up at the castle with a sad smile. Behind him were at least a hundred wizards and witches, all like the man clothed in the traditional battle attire from the early twenty first century. The witches and wizards wore either red and maroon or black and emerald robes whereas the man in front of them wore wholly emerald robes. It was a really and truly amazing sight in the eyes of the children, and they knew that they were faced with an old style battle field where the Order of the Phoenix and Dumbledore's Army stood waiting for their enemies. Suddenly the scene kicked into motion and the second years couldn't help but to stare in awe.

_Harry stared with a sad smile at what had once been his beloved school, his childhood heaven. Nowadays the school was a dark place, a place of sin and death. A cool autumn breeze ruffled his hair but he didn't notice, nor did the solemn and silent soldiers behind him. Harry heaved a sigh, a sigh that represented so many things, and lifted his hands to his mouth._

"_VOLDEMORT!" He yelled in a sonorous-ed voice. A shudder went through the crowd but not through Harry. He had never feared that name and never would. Right now he didn't fear a thing, not even death. That the soldiers behind him still had fear he was glad of, because without fear there was no way that they would make it out alive. Without fear there were no sane emotions, and without fear there was a big chance that they would do something reckless in this deadly situation. Harry already knew he wouldn't make it out alive. He didn't have anything to fear._

"_Well, well, well. Gathered your troops, have you Potter? A pitiful sight." The voice came before the body. Soon the entrance of the castle opened and a frightful figure stepped out. He walked slowly until he stood just ten feet from Harry. No one even as much as twitched. Then the Death Eaters came, like a powerful river they poured out after Voldemort. The steam seemed endless. The more Death Eaters that came out, the wider Voldemort's malicious smirk grew but Harry just stood there stone faced. Finally the whole courtyard was filled and the Order and the Army found themselves heavily outnumbered._

"_Finally came out of hiding, did you?" Voldemort laughed darkly. "I never thought you foolish Gryffindors would see how pointless your so called guerrilla war was. It has hardly made a dent in my army!"_

"_Stop your gloating, Voldemort." Harry cut straight to the point. Voldemort's drama queen antics delayed both their demises, but Harry wasn't afraid of death, was he? He just wanted Voldemort dead and gone as soon as possible. Harry thrust his staff hard into the ground catching Voldemort off guard. He had probably expected Harry to go along with the theatrical scene he'd made before they started the fighting. Seemingly nothing happened. Voldemort smirked._

"_Is your stick broken, Potter?" He mocked. Harry gave a slight smile and suddenly the staff gave off a blinding white shine. The shine died down as quickly as it had appeared and again seemingly nothing had happened, but Voldemort knew better. He narrowed his eyes and shot off a spell into the sky. The spell only travelled a short distance before it was caught by an invisible barrier. The moment it struck a white dome flashed into sight around the two men but it was only visible for less than a second._

"_A caging charm," the Dark Lord hissed dangerously. Harry didn't bother to congratulate him on his discovery. Voldemort quickly sent off the Killing Curse at Harry but with a faint glow of the staff a wall materialised in front of Harry and caught the dark curse. The wall disappeared as Harry lifted the staff from the ground._

"_THE LAST TWO HORCRUXES SHALL BE DESTROYED!" Harry shouted in his once again sonorous-ed voice and with a mighty thrust he buried the end of the staff in the ground._

"_The last _two_…?" A Phoenix witch with pink hair asked horrified before the ground started to tremble. The tremble increased and increased up until it felt like an earthquake, and suddenly with a loud bang and a bright shine from the caging dome everyone in the courtyard was thrown off their feet as the ground gave one last mighty heave before it stilled._

_Dark and Light wizards alike looked up from the ground dazedly. In the place where the two most powerful wizards of their time had stood just seconds ago was now a huge crater._

Sterling halted the scene here. The second years, who had instinctively thrown themselves to the ground at the loud bang climbed to their feet. Older students and a few first years had looked out the windows when they heard the loud bang and was now watching the scene in interest. A few older students who had already had this lesson years ago explained what was happening to the curious first years.

"Harry Potter had realised before he came to Hogwarts to fight the battle that he was the sixth horcrux," Sterling explained gravely. "When Voldemort tried to kill him that Halloween when he had just turned one, Voldemort unwittingly transferred a part of his soul into Harry Potter. It is believed that this happened because of a reaction between the love protection of Harry Potter's mother and Voldemort's intent to use Harry Potter's death to create a new horcrux." Sterling paused and looked at her class and then glanced briefly at the students hanging out of the windows.

"Both the pink haired Phoenix's exclamation just before the explosion and later written testimonies verify that no one but Harry Potter himself knew of this before the battle. Harry Potter was convinced that if he told anyone about it, they would stop him from carrying out his plan. He believed that his life was of little worth compared to the demise of the Dark Lord." The second years looked at each other horrified. Sterling had a certain talent for story telling, certainly something she used well and often as a History teacher. Her stories invoked deep feelings within her audiences and they could not help but to be touched by the historical figures' fates.

Sterling led the group over to the crater. The illusion was still there so when they looked down into the crater they saw two bodies at the bottom, and the staff. Sterling cancelled the illusion quickly before the twelve year olds were able to get a good look at the corpses. There was no need to let them see that. The group stood quiet for awhile.

"Then Harry Potter knew he was going to die before he went to the battle!" A small girl exclaimed softly. Sterling gave her an unreadable look.

"Yes, he did." Sterling answered quietly. "He was altruistic enough to sacrifice himself. Dark Lord Voldemort truly made himself his worst enemy when he acted upon that prophecy some five hundred years ago."

Author's Note: Just something I made up quite spontaneously a few hours ago. Not very long but I hope you will enjoy it.


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